I've been recently reading some of the works of Jonathan Edwards. He is regarded by many as America's greatest preacher, theologian and intellectual. His gripping sermon, "Sinners in the hands of an angry God," which was addressed to a small congregation in Enfield, Connecticut on July 8, 1841, has been called "the most famous sermon ever delivered in the history of America."
The text he used is found in Deut. 32:35, "Their foot shall slip in due time." The subject matter was the imminence of Divine judgment and the awaiting horrors of eternal punishment - what today we derisively call "hellfire and damnation."
By anyone's standard, it was astonishingly gripping and terrifyingly vivid. "You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it and burn it asunder. God hath had it on His heart to show angels and men, both how excellent His love is, and also how terrible His wrath is."
The sermon caused an immediate sensation in Enfield. Even before he had finished, "people were moaning, groaning and crying out" such things as "What shall I do to be saved?"
Many of Edwards' critics accused him of playing upon people's emotions, and others said that he exploited the popular fears and phobias of the day. Edwards responded to the criticism by saying that he had modeled his message on the words of Paul, "Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men," (2 Cor. 5:11). He said, "I don't desire to go about to terrify you needlessly or represent your case worse than it is, but I do verily think that there are a number of people belonging to this congregation in imminent danger of being damned to all eternity."
It was this kind of pastoral concern and evangelistic passion that enabled Edwards to lend wise leadership to the Great Awakening here in America. He realized that the finality of eternal judgment meant that he could not lower the standards, diluting or compromising the message. The lake of fire is open for business! And yet, hope remains, and so Edwards compassionately pled for his audience to heed the message of the Gospel.
In our day, the world has affected the Church far more than the Church has affected the world. We want to create a positive image and stress the benefits of the Christian life. We want to proclaim a Gospel of "peace." The problem is "there is no peace for the wicked" (Isa. 48:22). In an age of political correctness, Edwards' legacy to us is the proclamation of both the "goodness and severity of God." (Rom. 11:22)
Of course, the Gospel is "Good news!" But it is only good news to those who are brought to understand the "bad news" that without the intervention of God, we are doomed sinners awaiting the very flames of hell. Thank God we don't have to perish!
Why? "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)
